Details
Creator Block, B., photographer.
Title [Two African American men advertising Higgin's German laundry soap] [graphic] / B. Block, artist, 181 Myrtle Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y.
Publisher [Brooklyn, New York, N. Y.]
Date [ca. 1870]
Physical Description 1 photograph : albumen on carte-de-visite mount ; 11 x 7 cm (4.25 x 2.5 in.)
Description Portrait photograph showing two African American men, side-by-side, attired in suits, as well as top hats with advertising text for Charles S. Higgins Company soap. One hat reads "Try it" and the other reads "Higgins German Laundry soap is the best." One man holds a swagger stick and the other a walking cane, and both stand in front of a backdrop depicting a bucolic mountain scene. Charles S. Higgins Company, established by Higgins's father W. B. Higgins in Brooklyn in 1846, manufactured "German Laundry soap" beginning around 1860, when Charles assumed the business. The laundry soap was packaged in a wrapper illustrated with an African American woman washing in a tub. By the early 1890s Charles S. Higgins left the firm still operated under his name and formed Higgins Soap Company. Court proceedings over trademarks and tradenames ensued and Higgins Soap Company became insolvent by the mid 1890s.
Notes Title supplied by cataloger.
Photographer's imprint printed on verso. Includes illustration of a paint palette.
Purchased with funds from the Albert M. Greenfield Foundation.
Subject Higgins, Charles S., approximately 1841.
African American men.
African Americans in advertising.
Genre Albumen prints -- 1860-1870.
Group portraits -- 1860-1870.
Cartes de visite -- 1860-1870.
Advertisements -- 1860-1870.
Location Library Company of Philadelphia| Print Department| cdv portraits - group - advertisements - Higgins [P.2013.26]
Accession number P.2013.26